The former captures the agonies of Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson as they spend weeks ascending – and vertically camping on – a 3,000ft cliff in Yosemite. The latter is a riotous and occasionally tragic look at how rock-climbing and wingsuit-flying took hold in the same Californian National Park seven decades ago, confounding both the police and gravity. Without pre-placed gear, some climbers will either set up a V-Thread, which is done by making an inverted V hole into the ice with an ice screw, then threading the rope through and rappeling off of both strands of the rope. If there is good rock, climbers will leave some trad gear placed in the rock. After years of indoor training and local outdoor exploration, as a young adult he moved to Squamish – a world renowned climbing area with a huge mix of ice, rock, and alpine climbs. It didn’t take him long to settle into the local crowd and he was soon making a name for himself.
It brought me back to the days when soloing the Emperor Face was still just a dream. Could have been made in the 1970s, as just about any of the Stonemasters would have been amazing character studies, it also couldn’t have been made. The appetite, and hence the budget, just didn’t exist. Back then, the counterculture of climbing was a liability, not a curiosity, to culture writ large.
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‘I met Marc when he was 19 and I was 20 and we just started climbing together’ … Brette Harrington and Leclerc.
Eventually sponsorship would allow him to do exactly what he wanted all the time. The Icefall collapse neutralized the 2014 climbing season, turning back dozens of eager climbers. But after the tragedy, Harvey and his team, led by New Zealand expedition company Adventure Consultants, managed a trip above Base Camp, into the Icefall. “We spent two hours getting visuals for the effects team,” he said. The Alpinist begins with an interview with Alex Honnold. The most popular climber in the world is asked who inspires him, and he responds “This guy Marc André Leclerc.” It’s fitting.
This digging would move snow and would be very likely to cause an avalanche at their position. Their descent route started down the East ridge and then required them to rappel down the fourth tower. After friends and family realized they hadn’t made contact by the evening of the 7th when they were expected, they contacted local search and rescue teams who started a search on the 8th. They were stopped from serious efforts using helicopters until the weather cleared on the 13th. On the 5th of March 2018 Marc-André Leclerc and Ryan Johnson had completed a new route on the north face of the Main Tower of the Mendenhall Towers, Alaska. It was previously unclimbed and the pair had texted friends and partners of their topping out as well as posting views from the peak to Instagram.
Alex Honnold + Mark Synnott Make First Ascent In Guyana For Nat Geo
Along the way, they capture Leclerc free soloing vertical rock in Squamish, known as the Yosemite Valley of Canada. Here, he flows up the stone with such grace and intuitiveness that it’s like watching a ballet dancer execute a perfect routine—only he’s ropeless and risking death at every step. In one scene, he climbs overhanging rock and ice barehanded, frequently pausing to gently dust holds with one finger before placing a single crampon point onto an invisible edge. The Alpinist captures some of the most awe-inspiring free solo climbing footage ever seen on rock and ice. Filmmakers Peter Mortimer and Nick Rosen of Sender Films, core climbers who’ve documented the sport for 20 years, tell the story of Marc-André Leclerc, regarded as the best alpinist in history.
What set Marc apart from others, was his ability to tackle any kind of environment, both ice and rock. Marc used to sleep on a stairwell in his early days of mountaineering, because he had so little money. These extreme sports stars post images of themselves in precarious spots across the globe on social media sites and generate huge clicks. The top climbers, like Honnold, can earn millions from sponsorship.
Live Like Marc Andre!
He might not be the greatest of talkers, but there’s an infectious joyfulness about him. Two teams of helicopters located what looked like the orange climbing rope the pair had been using. It was buried underneath snow and ice in a gulley crevasse part of the way down the fourth tower.
Leclerc wrote on his blog that soloing The Corkscrew “felt like a brief ‘step into the future’ so to speak…” in his efforts to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming an explorer. To some degree, that’s what’s interesting about Leclerc, who’s not at all a charismatic chatterbox like Honnold. For Leclerc, scaling difficult peaks is its own reward, irrespective of whether anyone else knows that he did it.
Talk and archival news footage of legendary free solo mountain climbers who fell to their deaths. Marc-André Leclerc climbs alone, far from the limelight. On remote alpine faces, the free-spirited 23-year-old Canadian makes some of the boldest solo ascents in history.
Still, this is a movie, not a book or feature article. And having a subject who largely refuses to cooperate, thereby forcing the filmmakers to sit around at home and relate much of what happens indirectly, doesn’t exactly make for a classic. The best that can be said is that Leclerc’s partial absence paves the way for a tragic epilogue . The film ultimately becomes an ardent tribute to a young man whose desire to be observed and celebrated was all but nonexistent.
This question mark is brought to the surface in the narrative of Marc as indifferent to press or fame. That in-itself is cathartic, and it’s delightful that such a person exists. And yet, to think LeClerc’s indifference to media is an aside, or simply adjacent to his penchant for hard alpine solos would be misguided. The intensity and focus of hard alpine soloing amplifies being plugged in, or, better yet, is the prerequisite thereof.
Kent Harvey on camera with first camera assistant Paul Santoni and stunt double/safety Stefan Sporli filming an Everest basecamp approach sequence. The timeless gift of digging deep in the mountains. I’m not sure I’m willing to judge the value of one’s entire life using only a 2+ hour movie that centers around only one part of it . They did seemed to be a very loved and valued person to their partner, and I think if anything that that speaks volumes to me.
With no cameras, no rope, and no margin for error, Leclerc’s approach is the essence of solo adventure. Nomadic and publicity shy, he doesn’t own a phone or car, and is reluctant to let a film crew in on his pure vision of climbing. Veteran filmmaker Peter Mortimer sets out to make a film about Leclerc but struggles to keep up with his elusive subject. Then, Leclerc embarks on a historic adventure in Patagonia that will redefine what is possible in solo climbing. Early in The Alpinist, the new movie by Sender Films, climber Marc-André Leclerc is captured free soloing the Stanley Headwall, a 500-foot feature in Canada’s Kootenay National Park heralded as the centerpiece of mixed climbing in the Rockies.
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